


Listening

by WahlBuilder



Series: Languages of Love [12]
Category: The Technomancer (Video Game)
Genre: Anton 'Adopt Everyone' Rogue, Autistic Technomancers, Family Bonding, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:27:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21606799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WahlBuilder/pseuds/WahlBuilder
Summary: A quiet moment for Alan in Anton's office.
Relationships: Anton Rogue & Alan Mancer
Series: Languages of Love [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1277777
Kudos: 2





	Listening

Alan likes Anton’s office. It’s in the middle of things, and yet quiet. People come and go, and he can observe them, sitting on the comfortable couch in the corner, sipping tea that isn’t the watery stuff that was always in the cafeteria, and... There’s no cafeteria, of course. The technomantic quarters are sealed — he was there, coursing the hallways that he had walked for nearly all of his life, now silent witnesses to a war on a local scale. Sometimes, in the past, he imagined the halls empty, only himself to roam them as he saw fit — but watching that image in reality was disturbing. He doesn’t like noise but he finds he likes being... surrounded by it. Separate from himself, but still out there.

Like in Anton’s office. Anton and Vik have returned to Ophir to sort through shit, and Alan has come with them. Not that he despises his original family — not exactly, not anymore — but he needs... time. He’s been trying to make amends, and he loves Zach and Zach’s merry band, loud as they are, and the glass masters in Noctis agreed to work with him... But he needs time. He feels like the things he does are not enough — not like _before_ , when no matter what he did, it was never, ever, ever enough — but in a different way. Unsatisfactory to him, to his own peace, not for others. So he shall withdraw and think.

Besides, he likes Anton’s office.

And Alan’s new family — families? do they count as one or as two? — are here, for the most part.

“They miss you, too, you know,” Anton says. “The Vory and the agents. The Mancers, too.”

Alan likes his voice — soft. Anton never raises his voice at his people.

“You listened,” he says. It’s been a while since he’s... found them (they found him?), but some things, sometimes, still feel unfamiliar. Like someone actually listening to him, to his rambles. Paying attention.

Alan isn’t stupid. He knows he can be annoying, he knows his monotonous voice can be awful, he knows he can be vile while _meaning_ to but ashamed, inside, and unable to stop. He tries to stop. Mancers are not the most stable people, and he’s a Mancer.

Anton glances at him over the tablet. Alan has problems with alternating between unable to focus and hyperfocusing on something, and Anton Rogue (“Pa”, they have agreed without discussing it, with Jeff and others, Anton is “Pa” and Vik is “Dad”, and basically nobody calls him “Viktor”) has problems with reading and his handwriting is awful.

“I always pay attention to what you say, kitten.”

Kitten. Alan pulls his knees to his chest and smiles. Kitten. Here’s the big cat of Ophir, and he’s the kitten, and here’s their nest, and whether he meows or yowls or purrs, they will hear him and listen to him.

Yes. That’s good.


End file.
